Views from Sandhausen: Experiences from a Foreign Service Assignment in Germany

By Clifford Feightner

Foreign Service Assignments are Glamorous — right?
Climb aboard this modern-day journey to a foreign land. Join the authors, Cliff & Lynn Feightner, as they uproot their comfortable upper-middle-class life, and take the plunge into a Foreign Service Assignment — while in their late 50s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9780983128328

Book preview

enjoy!

Introduction

I worked for a Fortune 100 company for a total of 38 years. My education was broad and varied, beginning with civil engineering at a large state school in the Midwest. I went to work with the birth of our first child, and continued my education as Lynn gave birth to our second.

I studied in the primary areas of Project and Corporate Engineering, Computer-Aided Design and Drafting, Information Technology, Organizational Development, and Project and Program Management, and I picked up my BS along the way by accumulating my casual college-level courses and finished by way of distance learning and employer training.

Working in Information Technology, our projects—based in our Technical Center in the US and in Luxembourg—spanned the globe. As a result, many round-trips across the Atlantic were required.

After having made many of these trips, not to mention my other global travel, Lynn and I were offered the opportunity to move to Europe for 18 months, with the potential for extension. It eventually became three years, the last few years of my career.

For those of you who have worked in a similar environment, you know that the work is never done! In our case, we were offered a choice of Paris, FR, Birmingham, UK, or Heidelberg, DE. We settled in a small village five kilometers south of Heidelberg—Sandhausen.

The balance of this book is a review, or summary, of our diary, if you will, of the email messages and photographs that we exchanged with our colleagues, friends and family back home. Occasionally we would send a truly notable photograph to bring our experiences to life. These, my friends, are our Views from Sandhausen: Experiences from a Foreign Service Assignment in Germany.

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NOTE:

Photos mentioned in the text of this book, but not featured in it, can be viewed online at

www.ViewsFromSandhausen.com.

Welcome to Europe!

Last night we huddled around our new, 30" flat-screen TV for warmth. That was after the bottle of Chianti that we had for dinner. Lynn’s spaghetti was wonderful, but she’s worried about running out of tomato sauce. We haven’t found it here.

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Date: September 23, First Year

Subject: Views from Sandhausen #1

Foreign Service assignments are supposed to be glamorous — right?

Let us tell you a story. This is the first in a series of experiences and photos that we will be sending back to the homeland, to give you a small View into our life in Europe. We both hope that you find them entertaining and informative.

You all must remember that we experienced two levels of adjustment when we came over here. The first is the difference between ‘luxury’ living that we enjoyed in the Crossings (USA) and a more ‘modest’ type of living in Germany. The second is that there is a difference between ‘US modest’ and ‘Germany modest.’ All in all, it made for quite a shock to us both; a shock that we adjusted to quite well, after three weeks in our adopted home. Our little courtyard is below and beside our flat. There is a garden and a walk leading to the garages (a space to which we have not yet graduated). I worry about the new BMW that will be parked in the driveway in a week’s time…. There is an exterior stairway that leads up to our deck and rear door. That (upper deck) door is set into a wall of glass that spans the rear of the house. Fortunately, the deck is on the south side of the flat.

There are many more photos to come.

No luck with the house phone. We both have received our cell phone SIM cards. The numbers are:

Cliff [phone]xxxx

Lynn [phone]xxxx

When you dial the number, you omit the ‘(0)’ and add a ‘011’ before the ‘49.’ EXAMPLE: 011 49 172 7188 xxxx

When we receive actual cell phones, you can call. No Martha — they tease you with the chips and constantly break their word on when the phones are to arrive …

My Nextel phone was very effectively destroyed by my local Vodafone dealer. It seems that if you put any SIM card other than a Nextel SIM into a Nextel phone, there is a ‘poison pill’ built into the phone that actually destroys the phone. The only choice is to buy a new phone; so, say goodbye to (330) 352-xxxx. It kind of mimics what happened to our new HP computer yesterday. Despite changing the voltage switches on the back of the computer prior to plugging it into our 220V line, and after the loudest crack you ever heard, the computer is (literally) toast.

Are we having fun yet???

Love you all,

Cliff & Lynn

Date: September 24

Subject: View #2

Good morning all,

We have a covered entranceway (our building’s front door) from Burgstrasse — literally ‘town street’ — entering our courtyard. Yes, the outside doors are glass. No, you can’t see in them. Yes, they appear to be secure. No, they don’t keep out the cold.

This morning, our inside temperature was 66 degrees (outside 48). This temperature doesn’t seem to bother the Germans; they just put on more clothes. Back in Cuyahoga Falls on Stone Creek Trail, we let the digital thermometers keep us at an ideal climate. Today, we turn a valve on each radiator. That, of course, assumes there is hot water in the pipes, and for all radiators other than the one in our larger bathroom, it’s an invalid assumption. I used the fan to suck out the heat from the bathroom and disperse it out into the hall. I was very proud that I got the temperature to rise two-tenths of a degree in 4 hours (the only forced-air heat in Germany last night). Lynn spoke to our landlady (a wonderful woman) about the cold this A.M. Her reply was that she would ‘ … just have to turn off all the heat next week when it becomes warm.’ She has more faith in the temperature moderating than we have. Never again will we place our comfort and well-being in someone else’s hands!

Last night we huddled around our new, 30" flat-screen TV for warmth. That was after the bottle of Chianti that we had for dinner. Lynn’s spaghetti was wonderful, but she’s worried about running out of tomato sauce. We haven’t found it here. With it, the result is divine. Without it, I plan to spray-paint the overly large (diameter) vermicelli red. This may be one of the items requested in the (future) care package.

Oh, the TV. (No Martha, the (3) phones have not yet arrived.) We ordered a new Sony TV. We checked for the fact that it would be new. We asked if it was ‘packed’ (the magic word you need to get something really ‘new’). After slipping the delivery date by 5 days, we received an obvious floor model, wrapped in bubble wrap, dirty, and with a small scratch on the top. The Sony manual is in German, Polish, and Turkish. Really useful, huh; having said that, the picture is wonderful. We wonder what the chances are of getting a really ‘new’ one. We’ll see.

That’s all from Fantasyland. Photos will be forthcoming. Tonight we will stay warm huddled around the Crossings pool photos that John sent to us. In them are many of our wonderful friends, enjoying our really wonderful last day at our pool. It seems like that is 7,000 km away (which it is) — but on a different planet! Thanks guys for that wonderful day and the (warm to the touch) photos by which we can remember!

Have A Grand (read: warm) day!

Cliff & Lynn

Date: September 25

Subject: View #3

Good morning all,

We survived the night! It only went down to 46 (66 inside). Coming out of the shower this morning was an adventure. You have no idea how quickly you can move when icicles threaten to form on your body. Because the washers and dryers are so small, the towels are smaller than our hand towels back in the US. That’s it — no options.

As we look down from the top of the steps at the edge of the ‘deck,’ we see our small courtyard in the center of the house. Not inspiring, but significant in that the deck is the size of most folks’ kitchens. I can hardly wait to send out to you tomorrow the view from the deck! Mind you, I’ve carefully framed all of these photos so that the best impressions are drawn. It’s enough to actually look forward to Thursday A.M.!

You are probably wondering, ‘Where are the interior photos?’ We are holding off on those because we are waiting for the last piece of furniture, a sculpted glass coffee table to be chiseled out of the sand. First they gather the sand. Then they get a government permit to collect it (using conscript labor). Then you wait weeks for them to acknowledge that you have paid the 16% Value-Added Tax (VAT). Then they melt it (certainly not in cold Germany!). Then they do some more chiseling. Then they deliver it to the house, but don’t bother to ring the bell. Then they leave a formidable-looking note (in Bavarian German). Then they come back the next day with the delivery and deliver it outside, only if you are sitting by the front door with tips in hand. Then you carry the bloody thing up 2 ½ flights of stairs. Then you can take your pictures (after the mist clears).

There was big news yesterday. Lynn received a handwritten letter from Debbie back in Stow. To restate, letters from the US cost $0.80. The same letter going to the US costs $1.50 (equivalent) free enterprise at work. Lynn (and I) was thrilled! Lynn also received her new Siemens SL45i WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) phone! In Italy it is called WOP — you guess the acronym . That means she gets Internet access and lots of other stuff. We are happy about that, but my tri-band phone (to replace the now-dead Nextel phone) has been promised to me daily for two weeks. We still don’t have a home phone, but we are promised — a promise of a date — during the next lunar eclipse.

From the US, the number for Lynn is 011 49 172 7188 xxxx. The phone is on from 2:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. (US time on the East Coast). Lynn has voice mail, and now that I’ve downloaded an English user’s manual, Lynn might be able to pick up how to access her messages. Of course, I need to reprogram the phone (via infrared-beaming technology) with my laptop to change the German (native) prompts to English prompts. Always an adventure!

That’s it for today. More adventures to relate tomorrow. Can you guess, by my documenting these adventures in these notes, that I will include this experience in my forthcoming book? Tentative title: Living the Dream; Subtitle: Blazing a Trail to Paradise.

Only 1 year, 10 months, and 27 days to go.

Tonight we have dinner with Bill L., CEO of Ironside Technologies. That’s the company I worked with over the last 2 ½ years on our pan-European B2B system that is growing beyond expectations, and is also the vendor for whom I flew to New Orleans to speak at their global User’s Conference last week. In my presentation, I mentioned that Lynn was unhappy that I had to leave Germany for 2 ½ days, so he flew over to take us to dinner in Heidelberg — to say thanks. (Not really) it was a planned trip, but I thought that it was very nice of him to do so. Next Monday we have dinner with the General in charge of the Canadian NATO presence here in Europe. As I said, our landlady is very well connected.

‘Film at 11’ (means more information/drama to come),

Cliff & Lynn

Date: September 27

Subject: View #4

Good morning all,

Reminder: Less than 3 shopping months until Christmas.

Sorry to miss Thursday’s note and picture. I worked a 12-hour day yesterday …

With today’s note, we will begin to show you our view of the outside of our home, as well as a series of photos shot while walking around Sandhausen when the sun used to shine. We took them two weeks ago, the last time we saw that miracle of nature occur. Our deck measures about 6 feet by 21 feet.

While we watch the remains of Hurricane Isidore drop lots of rain on northeast Ohio, we want you to know that we are also receiving the gift of moisture from above. Maybe it breaks for the weekend, and maybe not.

So, today is a lighter day. We meet with the local computer maven (who has access to parts) to see if, like the Phoenix, we can resurrect a working machine from the ashes of our former HP 760N. Warranty support from most US firms is painful here, and I’d rather pay for a part than go through the Hell of talking, asking, pleading, not understanding, pleading again, shipping, losing, swearing, finding, shipping, missing several deliveries, and literally weeks, if not months, of pain to get ours repaired for free. What we don’t have is time. Lynn is beginning to ‘fray around the edges’ from the constant bombardment of CNN. We need to get her connected to the Internet soon or I fear the worst (only partially kidding). Maybe we will have a working phone line and a computer before Thanksgiving (which is celebrated here as a religious holiday) …

So, Oct 3 is a holiday (German Reunification Day) and I have to be in Hanau (130 miles northeast of here) all day Oct 2. So, those travelling Feightners will intrepidly pack up the ole Peugeot 306 (no, the BMW hasn’t arrived yet — it’s probably one of those manufactured in South Carolina!!!) and head to Hanau Tuesday at noon. I’ve been to the hotel (Villa Stokkum) many times. They have heat and a working phone line!

After taking Friday, Oct 4 off (I still have two months vacation this year), we’ll declare it our first probe into the soft underbelly of Europe. A lurking thought: you know what is at the back of most soft underbellies!

The saga continues with Monday’s note.

To all, hug each other and make the very best of the weekend ahead. We’ll see you on the other side.

Our love,

Cliff & Lynn (packing as we speak … )

Date: September 30

Subject: View #5

In most European towns, there is a zoning requirement that buildings look essentially the same as those adjacent. In that way, the overall look and feel of the surroundings is consistent. You do see some radically different styles as you leave the center — that’s how you know where the ‘center’ is. As in all locations in this part of Europe, the standard construction is block walls with stucco. All of the windows are the same as well, opening as a door, or able to open from the top with the tops sloping inward. No screens — period.

This weekend we met with our landlady in the Altstadt (old town) in Heidelberg. There was a one-day festival, and the normal shopping district — which extends from the Bizmarckplatz (transportation center) to the Schloss (1.8 km) — was transformed with lots of little booths, and craft work (including a real blacksmith working) was on display. After several beers and little purchasing (for a change), we headed across the ‘Old Bridge’ to the north side of the Neckar River. For references, see http://e-heidelberg.com/attractions/attractions.html.

There you find access to a trail called Philosophenweg, or Philosopher’s Way. Of course, we climbed more than 600 feet the hard way — up the steps. The trail and steps were built in the early 1800s. The steps are incredibly difficult to climb, the path lined with buckeye and almond trees, and because the path is lined like an open-topped stone passageway, the moisture and moss were pervasive. This is the toughest climb that I have taken, matched only by several lighthouse climbs in the Caribbean and the last 600-foot climb to the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado. Well, we felt it on Sunday and our legs hurt even more today (Monday).

The climb was worth it for the breathtaking view, as we had a remarkably clear day; we could see the nuclear reactor cooling towers that are quite close to me here in Philippsburg (40 km away). As we stood at the summit, Jon T. called. It was wonderful to hear his voice, and I’m just glad that he didn’t call 5 minutes sooner (while we were still in the ‘tunnel,’ both of us gasping for air!).

As this is quite a busy day for me, I’ll stop here. Later tomorrow, after our dinner with the head of Canadian NATO in the EU, we will have more to say. That should be interesting!

Our love to you all,

Cliff & Lynn

Lynn’s thought after reading View #5

Hi Everyone,

I am probably the last person to read this email.

Oh, we still ache 4 days after the event.

We had dinner with the General as a planned farewell to him and a hello to us. Juliane made us a traditional German feast. Now, I am not too thrilled when it comes to fish; however, over here you eat everything on your plate and then some. Imagine my surprise to eat raw herring with mixed fruit and veggies under it, with a cold dill sour cream sauce covering all of that. Well … I only threw up twice in my mouth! Then there was another fish dish to my left. Georg (Juliane’s partner) doesn’t like his herring that way, so his is deep fried. All you do is peel the skin and debone. His has a vinegar sauce. This is with duck pâté as the appetizer. Well, I finished, as did Cliff. My Dad knows about these dishes and has never said a word!!! Ahem!

We finally have heat! Yeah, now that it has warmed up!!! I am making friends every day and people are starting to know who I am. Phew!

Baden-Baden is in two weeks. That is right after the Sandhausen Oktoberfest. Baden-Baden has a casino. No silly slots, but James Bond games; hmmm??? Not to mention a romantic castle. See Baden-Baden Tourism.

It should be fun with two other couples. The gals gamble while the men smoke Cuban cigars.

Oktoberfest is right behind our place. Streets are starting to get wood and plastic put up to prevent damage. We will have use of a garage that night for sure.

It was funny when I was making smart-aleck remarks on our ‘death march’ last Sunday. Juliane was truly laughing at us. I told her she was trying to kill us. She said she had failed this time, and would have to devise another way! Gads, I wonder what that could ever be? Maybe keelhauling comes to mind?

The General is a wonderful man. He is our age. We had such good conversation on so many topics. He is so happy to be going home at last. His wife left last week. Now if we can just get Bush to stop all of this nonsense; I sure hope this doesn’t happen. Everything changes if we become aggressors. The view from all over here is that this is just plain wrong.

No more preaching, I promise.

We might adjust our ‘table’ this weekend? Yeah sure, right after all of you come here for a visit!

Love, Lynn

Date: October 1

Subject: View #6

Hi all,

Just a short note today as I’m in Hanau on business. Lynn decided not to join me this trip since the schedule was compressed from two days to one. As Thursday is a holiday over here and I’m desperately trying to use up vacation, I’m taking Friday off. I’ll type several issues of this little newsletter over the weekend, but they will not be sent until I return to the office Monday. Sorry for the delay caused by our still not having phone service at the house!

A small town square is normal in EU cities. As this is a village, we get half a square. It’s 10:00 P.M. tonight (now) and I’m tired after a 14-hour day. There will be more wittiness later in the weekend. I’m going to bed. Have a great (next) several days, and the news and notes will continue after I get some sleep.

All our Love,

Cliff & Lynn

Date: October 7

Subject: View #7

Good morning all,

We had a wonderful four days together over the weekend! Reunification Day was spent with walks and puttering around home. One of our walks took us into the forest that is right at the village (Sandhausen) border. As we walked down the prominent (only) trail from the parking area, it was as if we were walking through the tunnel of trees near us. After a kilometer or so, our (east-west) path intersected with a (north-south) path that clearly was an olden day’s path from village to village, and roughly follows the course of the Neckar River. At the path intersection, there was a two-meter-high stone marker with the names of, and distances to, the villages that are our north and south. The text etchings were ‘old’ German and were barely visible because of the weathering. Fascinating!

We have heat now. Our landlady asked us not to turn the radiators on (except the bathroom) until it got cold, or Oct 1 at the latest. We did not have a definition of what cold is. As it turns out, her definition’s the same as ours — so we should have turned on the heat a week earlier than we did. I was trying to honor the Oct 1 date. She was shocked that we did not turn it on earlier. We now have blessed warmth. For such a large flat, it is amazing how well those radiators work. They are a far cry from our climate-controlled, set-the-temperatures-once condo, but at least we are warm now.

Juliane and Georg left for Manila last evening — she for 6 weeks and he for 2. We will miss them but feel that we can survive OK. The main problem is that all of our windows are to be replaced Oct 30. It’s going to be cold again, as the radiators have an interlock with the windows. When the windows are open (or missing), the radiators are smart enough to know not to allow hot water to circulate. If the installation is not completed that day, we have a return engagement Nov 6. Every day is an adventure.

I finally received my cell phone!!! It’s a Nokia 6310i with tri-band (US and 75 other countries ) and personal dictation machine. Of course it is Web browser-enabled, with address book, conversions, world clock, and JAVA applications. Why it can almost brew coffee!

It took the better part of two hours to figure out how to use it. Of course, when it came, all of the internal prompts were in the phone’s native language (German). The task is to navigate the German prompts to find the internal setting that tells the phone to speak English. So, with a downloaded US manual next to the German manual that comes with the phone, you begin an interesting journey. We were smart with Lynn’s Siemens SD45i; we took it to Heidelberg and let the Siemens clerk do it for us. Her phone has almost all the attributes as mine — just not the world coverage — and is half the size. Still, this one is much smaller than my old Nextel phone (which we now use as a door stop).

To call from the USA:

Cliff [phone]xxxx

Lynn [phone]xxxx

We are going on about the cell phones because we still do not have a home phone. Rumor has it that they are using ravens to string the wires. As hunting season is nearing, we hope the ravens are really good acrobats! The other needed component is an ADSL box which multiplexes the line to provide the high-speed computer line. In my opinion, ADSL stands for Almost Daily Statements and Lies (about when the phone will come). I sure hope the Christmas Elves finish it before the toy-making season begins!!!

Saturday we went to Heidelberg (to keep our record streak going at 9 straight Saturdays in Heidelberg), where I got the worst haircut of my life! I had reserved a good stylist by the name of Jeanette. This place is an expensive styling salon. They have a good track record with Lynn (although her hair was cut too short on top last time). My last cut there (costing three times what I paid in the US) was OK.

I arrived at 10 minutes to the hour (early). I was told that Jeanette would be busy for another 10 minutes. OK. They gave me a great cup of coffee and I waited till quarter after the hour.

As the coffee was gone, I inquired about the time. I was told that Jeanette would be busy for another 10 minutes (do we see a pattern here?). They offered me another young girl, Fatima (for the haircut!). As time was a problem (Lynn was walking the shopping street Hauptstrasse with money), I said OK. Mind you, they said that Fatima ‘cuts hair real good.’ I told them how I wanted it through an interpreter and out came the shears. I was not smart enough to ask if she cuts hair real good to my specifications.

A whole heck of a lot later, with the hair on the sides much too short, the top too long for the sides, and the back of the head both uneven and blocked, the ordeal ended. When my hair was finished, Jeanette was still working on the same client that she was working on when I arrived. So, they had no intention of me ever seeing Jeanette. They gave me to the rookie and I received a rookie haircut. Needless to say, I had a few words with the owner, tempering my volume and word content a little because Lynn may still want to go there. Rest assured I will never darken their door again. What angered me was that I was lied to — and we have spent EUR 300 in there in the last month or so. I’d shave my head, but the absence of hair over here has a less than desirable connotation.

We purchased another wine rack while in Heidelberg.